title: A new approach to estimation of methane emission rates from landfills.
abstract: Methane emission monitoring has become increasingly essential for diffusive area sources, especially for landfills, which contribute to a significant fraction of the total anthropogenic methane emission globally. Statutorily, methane emission rate from landfills in Germany shall be examined on a semiannual basis; however, an appropriate approach has yet to be developed and adopted for general use. In this study, a new method is proposed based on experimental results, which utilizes a TDLAS (Tunable Diode Laser Absorption Spectroscopy) instrument - GasFinder2.0 system and a dispersion model LASAT (Lagrangian Simulation of Aerosol Transport) as the measurement device and calculation model, respectively. Between April 2010 and December 2011, a research project was conducted at a pilot scale landfill in the south of Germany. Drawing on the extensive research into this pilot project, an effective strategy of measurement setup was determined. Methane concentration was measured with GasFinder2.0 system in the upstream and downstream sections of the project site, while wind and turbulence data were measured simultaneously by an ultrasonic anemometer. The average methane emission rate from the source can be calculated by using the results as input data in the dispersion model. With this method, site-specific measurement approaches can be designed for not only landfills, but also different diffusive area sources with less workload and lower cost compared to conventional FID (Flame Ionization Detector) method.
authors.affiliation: University of Stuttgart, Institute for Sanitary Engineering, Water Quality and Solid Waste Management, Bandtaele 2, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany. Electronic address: han.zhu@iswa.uni-stuttgart.de.
authors.forename: Han
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Marcus O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Letzel
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Reiser
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kranert
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bächlin
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Flassak
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D008697:Methane / Q000032:analysis*; D010865:Pilot Projects; D018505:Waste Management
chemical_list: D008697:Methane
keywords: Dispersion modelling; Landfill; Methane emission rate estimation; TDLAS measurement